Another setup episode for the third act.

How does Chad know what a Quincy cityscape looks like? Did they accidentally give him someone else's line?

I think it would probably have made more sense both from a plot and character perspective if Ichigo took the Fullbringer shortcut and the Shinigami had to use the Hollow Garganta. It would be of a piece with the "Shunsui releasing Aizen" thing where they have to make temporary peace with their enemies, and also if they barely had enough reiatsu to activate the gate, why aren't all of them out of energy now?

Also why the fuck did Shunsui release Aizen and then just leave him in Seireitei? The only explanation is that he read ahead in the script and realized it would solve way too many problems for the heroes if they brought Aizen along and pointed him at their problems, and he knew he only needed Aizen for exactly one thing - to block the gross eyeball things from killing everyone.